Blogging the San Diego Padres… established 1997

Friday Links (23 Apr 10)

A friend of mine recently attended a wedding where “Dust in the Wind” played at the reception. How does that work? “Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky… Hey, baby, relax… don’t you know that you’re the earth and I’m the sky?”

Whatever. Go read stuff…

Earth

Bullpen Usage (Daily Baseball Data). Here’s a fun tool that “summarizes the usage of all active relievers, sorted alphabetically by team.” Baffle your enemies, dazzle your friends by telling them which pitchers will come into the game before it happens.

Padres staying put on cable TV (U-T). From Mike Freeman’s article: “Despite a Federal Communications Commission decision in January that forbids cable companies from keeping local sports programming all to themselves, the Padres games are not appearing yet on DirecTV or AT&T U-verse in the San Diego market.”

Eckstein’s Unlikely Bomb (FanGraphs). As Jack Moore notes, “One of the most remarkable things about major league hitters is that even those that we consider not to have any power, such as Eckstein, are capable, on any given pitch, of hitting the ball out of the ballpark.” As commenter Coal Bear notes, in response to… everybody, “The Eckstein ‘clutch’, ‘grit’, and ‘winner’ jokes are very, very tired and quite lame.” Really? You think? Moore also likes Mike Adams.

Four Good Wins and More (It Might Be Dangerous… You Go First). DePo asks the important questions: “You may think you have lived a full life, but have YOU ever been to Caldwell, Idaho? Or eaten at a Denny’s in Nampa on the way there?” No, but I’ve been to Bucksnort, Tennessee. Man, I love a good road trip. [h/t reader LynchMob]

Great Pinch Hitters Since 1961 (Baseball-Reference). Steve Lombardi gives us a fun list. Hey, look, up at the top… it’s Willie McCovey and Matt Stairs.

Sky

Across the (defensive) universe (Hardball Times) Jeff Sackmann asks, “What does the defensive spectrum look like at lower levels?” The answer may surprise.

Should Baseball Get Rid of Divisions, Instead of Realignment? Maybe Not. (Fangraphs). From Alex Remington: “Now, courtesy of Yahoo’s Jeff Passan and NBC’s Craig Calcaterra, we have a new idea: ‘unalignment’. Delete all divisions. Eliminate unbalanced schedules. The top four teams in each league advance to the postseason. As it was before the advent of the division era in 1969, playoff placement would depend entirely on won-loss record, not on who shares your division.” Or, eliminate the playoffs… but that would eliminate a nice little revenue stream.

Clip And Save (Padres Trail). Mike writes: “During last night’s radio broadcast, at least the 2 innings I was able to listen to, Ted Leitner told a story about the early 1980s Padres teams and the standings. He remembered a season where the Padres were in first place in early May, an unusual event for the franchise that had only been in first if they won on Opening Day. The SD U-T printed the NL West standings inside a dashed box with the annotation ‘CLIP AND SAVE’.”

TinCaps, the Band (The Watson Files). I am really digging this blog. According to Dan Watson, radio voice of the Fort Wayne TinCaps, Jerry Sullivan, Mike Watt (hey, didn’t he used to play for The Minutemen?), and Rymer Liriano were caught jamming the other day. I could help out on bass, or mandolin, or whatever.

Wind

Stauffer believes bullpen a fine fit (U-T). Tim Stauffer is enjoying his new role. Quoth Stauffer: “Psyche-wise, I’m probably more suited to the bullpen. Sometimes I think a little too much and it gets me into some trouble.”

Reader Geoff B. notes that former Ducksnorts favorite Paul McAnulty is still kicking, as “the oldest player on the Double-A Arkansas Travelers this year… by a few years.” P-Mac also homered the other night.

Alderson addresses Dominican corruption (Yahoo!). Jeff Passan talks about former Padres CEO Sandy Alderson’s new gig: “When Alderson accepted an offer to become commissioner Bud Selig’s new point man on the island nation of 10 million that has grown into the largest supplier of MLB talent outside the United States, he did not realize the depth of the problems. Identity fraud is rampant. Teenagers are injected with steroids meant for horses. The FBI investigated claims of team employees skimming money from signing bonuses paid to 16-year-olds. Hundreds of kids sign contracts every year, and each is prey for a Dominican baseball behemoth built on lies.” [h/t reader LynchMob]